As the Hollywood Hills football team searches for its starting quarterback with four candidates competing, one doesn’t look like the others.

She sports a ponytail that swings back and forth from the back of her helmet as she drops back to pass and flings the ball down the field.

If Holly Neher wins the job, she would become Broward County’s first female starting quarterback. Spartans coach Brandon Graham says Neher, a junior, is second string behind senior Ramon James.

It’s just the latest mountain to climb for Neher who, after playing the position for Hills’ girls-only flag football team in the spring of her sophomore year, wanted to keep throwing spirals.

So she signed up to play with the boys.

“I think I really do have a chance with them,” Neher said. “I don’t feel like I’m behind them or they’re better than me.”

The traditional concern at first glance may be how she handles getting tackled, but life has already dealt Neher much bigger blows than any defensive end swooping in for a sack is capable of.

Life has made her tough

Before Neher was 10, she helped her mother battle Stage IV breast cancer and had her father leave her and the family – all while dealing with the death of her grandmother and losing their house in a short period of time. Neher, her mother, Paula, and younger sister Victoria all moved into a one-bedroom apartment.

“She was right there helping me fight,” said Paula Neher, who has now been cancer-free for seven years. “She even was the one that shaved my head.”

Holly didn’t know it at the time, but her mother was on the verge of death before surgery in September of 2009.

Most parents might block their daughter from a request like Holly had when she brought up the idea this summer, but after surviving cancer and coming close to death, Paula couldn’t prevent her from pursuing what she wanted to do.

“My philosophy is never to regret. You go for what you want,” she said. “If I would’ve said no to her, that wouldn’t have been what I believed in.”

Paula Neher says Holly’s father has since returned periodically to the family and his relationship with the two daughters is improving.

As far as getting hit, it hasn’t happened yet for Holly as Florida requires teams to go through a week of acclimation before tackling, but it’s sure to happen next week.

“I’m kind of excited for it, but I’m a little nervous,” she said. “Some of these boys are pretty big, and I’m really small.

“I’m expecting for it to be a big bear hug and I just fall right on my back.”

Challenges ahead

By no means will it be easy for Neher. At 5-foot-2, male or female, it’s difficult see over the offensive line.

She’s also getting used to throwing a thicker football than she’s accustomed to when playing flag. More comfortable with her fingers off the laces, some throws tail off to the right, escaping her grip before she intends. Her longest deep throws travel about 30 yards while she usually can deliver a pass 40 in flag football.

On Wednesday, Neher threw with pads on for the first time. She reported to Graham that it was uncomfortable at first, but after a while, she forgot she even had them on.

Graham likes her ability to get the ball out quickly in the short passing game and how she handles the ball on jet sweeps or play-action fakes. She approaches the challenges with the right attitude.

“She really has the ‘it’ factor,” said Graham, who also leads the school’s flag football team and is in his first year at the helm after a long assistant coaching tenure. “Going back to flag football, there was something about the grit and the drive.”

That said…“She has to earn everything she gets,” he said. “If she doesn’t earn it, then she won’t play. I think it would devalue everything she’s worked for”

For her part, Neher says the boys on the team treat her like a little sister. They accept her and joke around with her like they would any teammate.

“We respect her as much as boys,” said James. “She’s part of us.”

For love of the game

The recognition is not what Neher seeks.

“I just really wanted to play football. That’s why I came out.”

While trying to be the first girl to start at quarterback for a local high school team, others have played in the past. Just two years ago, Hills had a backup quarterback, Eliana Martinez, come over from the flag football team.

Last year, Pine Crest had Sofia Caro play linebacker and running back. In 2012, Erin DiMeglio was the first girl to play quarterback in Florida, backing up John Franklin, now at Auburn. The first girl to play football in Broward was Anna Lakovitch, a placekicker for Pine Crest in 1996.

Hills also has a woman on the coaching staff. Jamia Thompson, a 2003 graduate, is going into her first season coaching running backs. She is also on the flag football staff.

Paula Neher says Holly is a 4.0 grade-point average student and wants to study law. Her dream college is Florida State.

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